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Teenage Depression In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

502 Words3 Pages

Character Response Laurie Halse Anderson the writer of the novel “Speak” portrays the struggles of teenage depression. Melinda a Freshman student who has been taking advantage of by an upper-class man at a high school summer party suffers through depression. Her depression builds under pressure after losing her best friends, family problems and the fact that she is an outcast at her school. Melinda’s mother and school teachers perceive Melinda as a quiet, troubled, teenager who refuses to speak, when truly Melinda is traumatized from her experience at the summer party. When being held at a parent conference, for example, Melinda does not speak out loud once. Her parents try to get Melinda to speak, Although they “Can’t get a word out of …show more content…

As a result of being raped at the party, Melinda keeps all the memories to herself.This is mostly because she no longer has a close enough relationship with someone to express her feelings. Melinda wants to have a connection with her parents but feels scared and does not know how her others around her will react. “I want to tell them everything” (Anderson 72) states Melinda. On Christmas day when she feels somewhat of a connected to her parents after she receives a present that showed her parents interest in her. Melinda wants to explain why she does not talk, why she is not doing well in school and tell them everything about the night at the party, but she does not. Being scared overpowers Melinda’s actions and the way she approaches others. For example, as Melinda is one-day skipping school she spots “IT” standing in the same parking lot as her. The action of being scared too over and she quickly run away, “bunny rabbit bolts, leaving fast tracks in the snow. Getaway, getaway, getaway.” (Anderson 97) Throughout the novel, Melinda is perceived as a quiet person who does not speak and often mistaken for trouble. Melinda has suffered through situations that make her scared and unwilling to speak. Melinda has unfortunately taken advantage of and it takes her awhile to get back up on her feet

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Melinda's Growth In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

449 Words | 2 Pages

There are specific people who helped her mature in a certain way. She slowly opens up over the course of the year with support from different people. There are several people in this novel who help Melinda find her “voice”. Mr. Freeman, for example, was an important part of Melinda’s growth. He is Melinda’s art teacher who came off as weird at first

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The Dynamic Character Of Melinda In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

370 Words | 2 Pages

In Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel, Speak, Melinda is a dynamic character whose behaviors, thoughts, and words change and reflect the theme of the novel, not to keep ones emotions bottled up. First, Melinda acts in a shy and quiet manner because she had got her friends into trouble when she called the cops at the party. However when Melinda begins to make her own choicesfor herself and not let her emotions get to her, she realizes she will not let other people make her own descions. This is evident when Anderson writes “I mean no I won`t help you” (Anderson 179). This shows how Melinda will not be walked on by her peers.

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Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

1138 Words | 5 Pages

She tells her story in her own words, in the present tense. This telling seems to be a kind of internal monologue. Melinda doesn't talk much to others, but she sure hasn't stopped talking to herself; she

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Halse Anderson Speak Quotes

675 Words | 3 Pages

and she didn’t talk to anyone. Melinda has been trying to overcome her trauma since the start of her freshman year but she hasn't been able to find the courage to overcome it until the end of the year. The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a girl named Melinda that had a traumatic experience at a party during the summer because of this Melinda has a hard time making friends going into the 9th grade. Melinda is also conflicted about her individuality and questions if she can trust anyone with being herself.

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Summary Of Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

710 Words | 3 Pages

The story is not written as your average outcast "popular people are stupid" cliché. It's an original, the tone is like Melinda is just relaying on her thoughts and what she sees to the reader, rather than her feelings and rage and anger against the people that hurt her. As readers near the end of speak Melinda gets stronger and begins to stand up for herself. The community that challenged the book couldn’t connect with the book because they thought too much of the negatives in the book then what Laurie actually tries to

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Examples Of Avoidance Of Conflict In The Novel Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

757 Words | 4 Pages

Melinda pushing those around her away is a direct result of her not acknowledging interpersonal conflicts due to the fact it’s easier for her to lose relationships than speak out. One day, while Melinda is eating lunch

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Depression In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

1192 Words | 5 Pages

In this current generation depression is becoming more and more prevalent in impressionable teenagers. This issue of depression is also an important theme in the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson in which the main character Melinda tries to overcome after a traumatic summer party. Throughout the novel there are many displays and signs of Melinda's depression. Of these signs the three most noticeable include her low self-esteem which is seen in every one of her decisions, habits of isolation/social withdrawal at school and even at home, and self harm. She unveils these signs of depression with every test and challenge she faces.

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Symbolism In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

392 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel, “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, there is a young high school girl that is named Melinda, she has something to hide from people that she know and love but eventually she will reveal her dark secret. I believe that symbolism plays a major role in the novel because many of the symbols represent how Melinda sometimes acts at times. Throughout the novel, Unarmed is used to symbolize Rabbits, Prey, and Fear in relation to how Melinda develops. I believe that Rabbits represent Melinda as an unharming animal who can’t defend herself from problems in life. This symbol also represents Melinda in a way that she can’t fight back, all she can possibly do is hide like a rabbit in her closet or run away from Danger.

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Use Of Figurative Language In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

644 Words | 3 Pages

" Speak also states on page 161 " I am a deer in headlights of a tractor, is he going to hurt me again? He couldn't in school... why am I so afraid. " These examples from the text show all the problems Melinda had, for instance what Andy did to her,

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Compare And Contrast Esperanza And The House On Mango Street

1125 Words | 5 Pages

This causes her to be unable to speak as normal and express herself only through self physical acts of hurting herself. However, through her pain, she begins to grow from a victim to a survivor and understands that the only way to go against evil is to speak out against it. Melinda in Speak is a high school freshman who is raped by Andy Evans who is a senior in high school. Due to him raping her she loses her ability to speak normally and say what she feels and how she feels. Melinda gains her confidence to speak in public freely again by the end of the story.

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What Is The Loss Of Innocence In Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak

403 Words | 2 Pages

Children in the age range thirteen to fifteen are often transitioning through a critical time of their lives. They frequently look to others as a cicerone on how they themselves should act. In the novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino calls the cops on an end-of-summer party at which she was raped. The novel depicts Melinda’s excursion as to how she copes with the heart-wrenching events that have affected her momentously as well as creating “[a] frightening and sobering look at the cruelty and viciousness that pervade much of contemporary high school life.” (Kirkus Reviews, Pointer Review).

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Examples Of Character Development In Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

755 Words | 4 Pages

(Anderson, 165). In this part of the book melinda is watching an episode of oprah and it's an episode about a girl who's been raped and melinda's subconscious wakes up and makes it seem like oprah is talking to her telling her she was raped, she just started to come to realization that she really was raped at the party and she was getting really overwhelmed and started feeling sick. She already knew she got raped, but she was in doubt and she didn't want it to be true which is why it took so long for her to

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Speak Journal Response To Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson

1218 Words | 5 Pages

Speak Journal Response This journal is in response to the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. As a coming-of-age contemporary novel, Speak discusses many sensitive issues that are still prominent even today. In this story, we explore the life of Melinda Sordino, a fourteen-year-old girl who is beginning high school right after experiencing an utterly traumatic event: rape. Melinda is left friendless, with no one to help and support her after what happened.

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Speak By Laurie Halse Anderson Analysis

734 Words | 3 Pages

The novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a girl named Melinda, who shows signs of depression throughout the story. She has no friends and is hated by people she doesn’t even know. This is because she called the cops at a party, where she was raped. Anderson includes literary elements to show how Melinda is depressed. Throughout the novel, she uses many different literary elements to show Melinda’s conflict.

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Essay On Symbolism In The Book Speak

1197 Words | 5 Pages

Melinda, in a lot of ways, starts out like that it the book. She becomes a shell of herself from before the party happened and because no one else was there, she is lonely and doesn't have anybody to go to and to make matters even worse, she’s covered by the reputation that she has formed. In the book, Laurie Halse Anderson uses symbolism to convey exactly what Melinda can't say. In the beginning of the book, Melinda starts high school carrying her emotional wounds with her after something happens mysterious to her at a party during the summer.

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